Plugins

OpenCLI supports community-contributed plugins. Install third-party adapters from GitHub, and they're automatically discovered alongside built-in commands.

Quick Start

# Install a plugin
opencli plugin install github:ByteYue/opencli-plugin-github-trending

# List installed plugins
opencli plugin list

# Update one plugin
opencli plugin update github-trending

# Update all installed plugins
opencli plugin update --all

# Use the plugin (it's just a regular command)
opencli github-trending repos --limit 10

# Remove a plugin
opencli plugin uninstall github-trending

How Plugins Work

Plugins live in ~/.opencli/plugins/<name>/. Each subdirectory is scanned at startup for .yaml, .ts, or .js command files — the same formats used by built-in adapters.

Supported Source Formats

# GitHub shorthand
opencli plugin install github:user/repo
opencli plugin install github:user/repo/subplugin   # install specific sub-plugin from monorepo
opencli plugin install https://github.com/user/repo

# Any git-cloneable URL
opencli plugin install https://gitlab.example.com/team/repo.git
opencli plugin install ssh://[email protected]/team/repo.git
opencli plugin install [email protected]:team/repo.git

# Local plugin (for development)
opencli plugin install file:///path/to/plugin
opencli plugin install /path/to/plugin

The repo name prefix opencli-plugin- is automatically stripped for the local directory name. For example, opencli-plugin-hot-digest becomes hot-digest.

Plugin Manifest (opencli-plugin.json)

Plugins can include an opencli-plugin.json manifest file at the repo root to declare metadata:

{
  "name": "my-plugin",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "opencli": ">=1.0.0",
  "description": "My awesome plugin"
}

Field	Description
name	Plugin name (overrides repo-derived name)
version	Semantic version
opencli	Required opencli version range (e.g. >=1.0.0, ^1.2.0)
description	Human-readable description
plugins	Monorepo sub-plugin declarations (see below)

The manifest is optional — plugins without one continue to work exactly as before.

Monorepo Plugins

A single repository can contain multiple plugins by declaring a plugins field in opencli-plugin.json:

{
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "opencli": ">=1.0.0",
  "description": "My plugin collection",
  "plugins": {
    "polymarket": {
      "path": "packages/polymarket",
      "description": "Prediction market analysis",
      "version": "1.2.0"
    },
    "defi": {
      "path": "packages/defi",
      "description": "DeFi protocol data",
      "version": "0.8.0",
      "opencli": ">=1.2.0"
    },
    "experimental": {
      "path": "packages/experimental",
      "disabled": true
    }
  }
}

Installing

# Install ALL enabled sub-plugins from a monorepo
opencli plugin install github:user/opencli-plugins

# Install a SPECIFIC sub-plugin
opencli plugin install github:user/opencli-plugins/polymarket

How It Works

• The monorepo is cloned once to ~/.opencli/monorepos/<repo>/
• Each sub-plugin gets a symlink in ~/.opencli/plugins/<name>/ pointing to its subdirectory
• Command discovery works transparently — symlinks are scanned just like regular directories
• Disabled sub-plugins (with "disabled": true) are skipped during install
• Sub-plugins can specify their own opencli compatibility range

Updating

Updating any sub-plugin from a monorepo pulls the entire repo and refreshes all sub-plugins:

opencli plugin update polymarket   # updates the monorepo, refreshes all

Uninstalling

opencli plugin uninstall polymarket   # removes just this sub-plugin's symlink

When the last sub-plugin from a monorepo is uninstalled, the monorepo clone is automatically cleaned up.

Version Tracking

OpenCLI records installed plugin versions in ~/.opencli/plugins.lock.json. Each entry stores the plugin source, current git commit hash, install time, and last update time. opencli plugin list shows the short commit hash when version metadata is available.

Creating a Plugin

Option 1: YAML Plugin (Simplest)

Zero dependencies, no build step. Just create a .yaml file:

my-plugin/
├── my-command.yaml
└── README.md

Example my-command.yaml:

site: my-plugin
name: my-command
description: My custom command
strategy: public
browser: false

args:
  limit:
    type: int
    default: 10

pipeline:
  - fetch:
      url: https://api.example.com/data
  - map:
      title: ${{ item.title }}
      score: ${{ item.score }}
  - limit: ${{ args.limit }}

columns: [title, score]

Option 2: TypeScript Plugin

For richer logic (multi-source aggregation, custom transformations, etc.):

my-plugin/
├── package.json
├── my-command.ts
└── README.md

package.json:

{
  "name": "opencli-plugin-my-plugin",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "type": "module",
  "peerDependencies": {
    "@jackwener/opencli": ">=1.0.0"
  }
}

my-command.ts:

import { cli, Strategy } from '@jackwener/opencli/registry';

cli({
  site: 'my-plugin',
  name: 'my-command',
  description: 'My custom command',
  strategy: Strategy.PUBLIC,
  browser: false,
  args: [
    { name: 'limit', type: 'int', default: 10, help: 'Number of items' },
  ],
  columns: ['title', 'score'],
  func: async (_page, kwargs) => {
    const res = await fetch('https://api.example.com/data');
    const data = await res.json();
    return data.items.slice(0, kwargs.limit).map((item: any, i: number) => ({
      title: item.title,
      score: item.score,
    }));
  },
});

TS Plugin Install Lifecycle

When you run opencli plugin install, TS plugins are automatically set up:

1. Clone — git clone --depth 1 from GitHub
2. npm install — Resolves regular dependencies
3. Host symlink — Links the running @jackwener/opencli into the plugin's node_modules/ so import from '@jackwener/opencli/registry' always resolves against the host
4. Transpile — Compiles .ts → .js via esbuild (production node cannot load .ts directly)

On startup, if both my-command.ts and my-command.js exist, the .js version is loaded to avoid duplicate registration.

Example Plugins

Repo	Type	Description
opencli-plugin-github-trending	YAML	GitHub Trending repositories
opencli-plugin-hot-digest	TS	Multi-platform trending aggregator (zhihu, weibo, bilibili, v2ex, stackoverflow, reddit, linux-do)
opencli-plugin-juejin	YAML	稀土掘金 (Juejin) hot articles, categories, and article feed
opencli-plugin-rubysec	TS	RubySec advisory archive and advisory article reader

Troubleshooting

Command not found after install

Restart opencli (or open a new terminal) — plugins are discovered at startup.

TS plugin import errors

If you see Cannot find module '@jackwener/opencli/registry', the host symlink may be broken. Reinstall the plugin:

opencli plugin uninstall my-plugin
opencli plugin install github:user/opencli-plugin-my-plugin